Wheatstone Corporation WheatNet-IP BLADE3, Техническое руководство

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G E N E R A L I N F O R M A T I O N
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WheatNet-IP BLADE 3 / Jan 2016
channel and the “announcers” on the right channel. The output of the mixer feeds the
recording device. These internal mixers are full featured and include panning, channel
ON/OFF, fader levels, and access to any source signal in the system. They also include
a full ACI (Automation Control Interface) allowing remote control, ducking, auto fade,
channel on/off, levels, source assign, etc.
Each BLADE3 has dual OLED displays for easily viewing and changing BLADE3
parameters. Colorful and high-resolution, these HDTV-like displays will give you more
ways to interact with the unit, such as being able to adjust virtual mixing right from the
front of the unit.
Source aliasing, or the ability to personalize sources and destinations is useful feature
of the BLADE3. For example, the same mic can be labeled “Chris” for the morning show
and “Pete” for the afternoon show.
There is an optional built-in audio clip player that can be used to put emergency
audio on the air. The files are managed in Navigator where you can add files, organize
the playlist, and fire playback with a logic port. Silence or LIO can trigger this playback
or it can be manually controlled from Navigator.
Each BLADE3 has a stereo multiband processor with the following: 4-band parametric
equalizer, three-way crossovers, three compressors, three limiters, and a final lookahead
limiter. This is a “routable processor,” meaning it is not limited to the local I/O on the
BLADE3 – it can be considered a network resource.
Each BLADE3 comes with 128 virtual logic ports for triggering, managing and
controlling the many feeds that have become standard in radio stations today.
The Associated Connections is a great feature in BLADE3s for callers, codecs,
networks, remote broadcast and live talk shows that require a mix-minus. Smart associated
connections, to take the hassle out of changing connections between locations, studios
or announcers. Simply define the link you need (ISDN, studio feed, remote, etc.) and
BLADE 3 can automatically set up a back link for it. Just trigger the connection and the
back feed will follow – a helpful feature for remotes or for when youʼre changing studios.
Each I/O BLADE 3 comes with multiple associated connections limited only by memory.
A word about latency – a finite and not insignificant delay from when audio or logic
starts at the input of the system and when it appears at the output. Packet based audio
networks have a reputation of having significant latency issues due to the performance of
the earliest implementations, some of which had tens and even hundreds of milliseconds
of latency. Each component of the system contributes to latency. On the input side, the
A/D convertors (or Sample Rate Convertors for digital inputs) take a little time to do
their work. Multiple samples of audio data must be accumulated and formed into packets
before they are placed on the network. Ethernet switches take time to analyze the packets
before they are sent on to their destinations, where they are disassembled and formed into
audio streams which finally can be converted by D/A converters before the audio starts
to play. All of this eats up a little bit of time at each step along the way. The WheatNet-IP
system has been designed from the outset to use Gigabit networks, among other things,
to minimize latency. Total latency from a BLADE 3’s input through an Ethernet switch
to a different BLADE 3’s output is roughly 1/2 millisecond, which is well below the 5-10
millisecond human threshold of detection. Unfortunately, due to the none-real time nature
of the Windows operating system and the fact that Windows requires buffers for audio
streams, latency to/from a Windows PC remains on the order of 100 milliseconds.